The old Half-Blood hill
by TreySabre
Summary: This is the redone version of my older story. It takes place before Thalia Grace's protective tree guarded the camp borders, meaning that life was a lot harder at the time, the story revolves around three teens, Tyler Hochberg, Katie Lambert, and John Elixir. This fan fiction will crossover with the Percy Jackson and the Olympians and the Heroes of Olympus books later on. Thank you
1. The beginning

**(A/N) This is the redone version of the original fan-fiction, being that I was twelve when I first wrote it; I felt a newer, more improved version should be made. Thank you to everyone who followed my first story.**

By now, I felt like life pretty much sucked. I was fourteen years old, with a depressive father, and my mother left me as soon as I was born. Anytime I ever tried to ask him how he was doing or anything really… He'd simply stroll away or just ignore me entirely. He was always reading ancient Greek mythology, or at work. Other than that, I had to fend for myself.

I had two friends, and two friends alone. Katie Lambert, I'd known her since I was ten, and was my first long term friend she was only a 2 months younger than me. And recently, I had developed a crush on her, and I was terrified. My second friend John Elixir I had known since I was twelve, and was a year older than me. I met him in the cafeteria one day and it turns out we had a lot in common, so ever since we'd been friends. I am Tyler Hochberg with jet black hair and the palest skin you'll ever see, John had tan skin and blonde hair, basically everything that was better than me. And Katie… she had brown hair that went to her shoulders and the greatest green eyes ever.

The thing was I had a crush on her, but I am terrified; Why? Because I couldn't stop thinking about her, I had the most deranged thoughts ever, I'd imagine her name with my last name, I'd wonder how she thought of me, and I kept flattering myself, as if she had positive thoughts about me. I had some pretty bad acne, as most teens did, except for Katie and John of course. I felt like an outsider. Despite the fact we all have ADHD and dyslexia.

You see, we all went to a special needs school because of these disabilities; except that we had it much more extreme than other kids, we could barely read and could NEVER sit still.

"Tyler?" My teacher asked, that jumped me out of my thoughts.

"Y-yes sir?" I replied.

"Your answer please…" He said like he'd asked a million times.

"Could you repeat the question please?" I asked. Everyone except Katie snickered

"No."

Katie was sitting to my left and I barely heard her say "William Bradford"

"William Bradford?" I asked.

"Yes, was that so hard?" He said irritably "Now back to the subject…"

I zoned out again, _she just saved me from having to do an extra assignment, most likely an oral report._ You see, when you aren't paying attention in class and he catches you, you usually have to write a fat oral report and read it out in class the next day.

***RING DING RING DING***

Everyone cheered and ran off to lunch, Leaving Katie, our teacher, and I in the room. As I started to get up my history teacher said.

"Tyler, please stay here, you too Katie…"

I remained silent; I didn't want to dig myself any deeper.

"I realize that you two are good friends and want to work together, that's what made America, is team work." He continued. "But you can't solve each other's problems."

Both of us still kept quiet, he must've heard Katie.

"In other words, since class is no longer in session I can't assign you an oral report, but I want you to pay more attention in class." He said "I know you are special needs but I need you to try harder."

I nodded a few times and he stared at me gravely.

"You heard what I said, right?" He said.

"Yes sir, to pay more attention in class and how you are going to spare me a painful death through oral reports." I said.

"More or less" he replied. "Dismissed"

I left and took a deep breath. Katie nudged me and smiled.

"Well?" She asked.

"Thanks for helping me." I replied.

"…And?" She continued.

"I'll try not to zone out again." _Try not to think about you and get in trouble for it._ I thought.

She laughed and we kept walking to the cafeteria. Then John joined us.

"Hey guys!" He said happily. _Why is he so happy when we all had the stories we lived with?_

"Got a nice A minus in Chemistry on my most recent test!"_ Oh._

"Not bad at all." I said.

"Indeed, considering I had no idea how to do anything."

Even though that wasn't true it made me smile. We all proceeded to the cafeteria, I had brought my own lunch and so did Katie, but John's fosters parents practically starved him, he was lanky and very much so at that. We'd bring our own lunch and also bring some for John, which he thanked us for every time.

"So you have you guys done anything exciting?" John asked.

"No…" I replied. _School was not exciting, it was the exact opposite._

Before we knew it we had to go to our next class. Which of course made me zone out again. I started thinking about the world around me. So dull, just a ton of special needs students waiting to learn about stuff they'd never use. I so wished my father wouldn't neglect me; it left me with only my friends. But what could be better? Having prettiest girl in the world and a guy who shared my life experiences at my side?


	2. The hound

**(A/N) Thank you to all who may have read my first chapter if any, but I plan on having little opening introductions to keep you guys entertained. Also, any camp quests will not have prophecies since I am no poet. So please keep reading, any comments, questions, concerns, or even your ideas on where the story should head, and I will not leave you guys without credit if I use your ideas. Or even if you wanted your own character added…**

Oh how I loved weekends, it was the two days off of school when I could have a do nothing or do something fun kind of day. Today I was going to meet up with John and Katie at a park, not that we particularly liked that sort of thing, but there was a lot of open space to do what we wanted. I was supplying food, which meant that I went to the grocery store the day before. I told you my father neglected me… either way, I got bread, turkey, cheese, mayonnaise, and a variety of chips. Katie was supplying the drinks, and John had to find a way to get out of his house.

John's foster parents treated him like a slave, the only reason he went to school is because of national law, if he wasn't at school every day, he'd be doing chores all day, so they force him to do it on the weekends, but today he's sneaking out. One day of relaxation is worth it to him, and probably everyone else.

Today was a good day in Louisville, Kentucky. It was around seventy degrees Fahrenheit outside and had nice breeze. I always liked cooler temperatures, it just felt right to be cooler than hotter. I laid out a blanket and set down the cooler I was carrying, in the distance I saw an owner playing fetch with his mastiff, kids running around playing tag at the playground setup, and people feeding the ducks at the pond.

_What a peaceful day._ I thought _I hope John's okay…And of course Katie too._

About two minutes later Katie showed up, with a six canned coke package. I nodded to her and she sat on the blanket as well. She appeared to be taking in the peacefulness of the scene. It almost seemed TOO peaceful, and I don't know why. I slightly turned my head to look at her; she was scanning the horizon, the mountains in the distance, the inner city, and all the people in the park. That's when I noticed something about her eyes, they seemed to change colors every ten seconds or so, going from green, to blue, to brown, and all over again. She started to turn to me and I quickly looked away, she didn't seem to notice I was staring at her.

"So… You do anything cool yesterday?" She asked.

"I went grocery shopping, if that counts." I replied.

She laughed, and I joined in, it seemed weird for a fourteen year old guy to go grocery shopping. For some reason I started to stare at the man with a mastiff, something in my brain told me it was out of place, but I couldn't place it. I decided it was nothing, and turned back to Katie.

"Have you done anything recently?" I asked.

"I went out to lunch at KFC with my dad, nothing much" She replied

I looked around to see if John was nearby but I couldn't find him. That same knack in my brain told me something was wrong. And I noticed the mastiff was bounding at us baring his teeth, I stared at it for a few moments waiting to see if the owner was going to stop it, but I realized the owner was nowhere to be found. And when I looked back at the mastiff, it was twice as large with even larger teeth, and it was closing in, surprisingly quietly.

"Ugh… Katie." I said, pointing in the direction of the… whatever it was.

She looked over and her eyes widened and she got up, and I realized I was already standing, backing up. It barked at us but it sounded strangely demonic, like three of those things were barking at once, in a low tone. Then out of nowhere three distinct golden arrows were shot at it from my right. One arrow hit it in the left eye, another in its front right paw and the last one right in its heart. It happened so quickly I couldn't have blinked in that amount of time.

And the mastiff couldn't even howl in pain before it turned into… dust? One part of my brain told me I was hallucinating, and the other told me I was in danger of something. I looked over at where the owner had been and saw a strange lady in a… dirt dress? Her eyes were closed as if she was sleeping, and she disappeared in the blink of an eye.

I looked to where the arrows had come from and saw John standing there, a bow in hand with a quiver of golden arrows. How could that be? John never mentioned having a bow at his house, or even if he knew how to fire one, but something on his face said that we was just as confused.

"What was that, and how did John get a bow?" Katie asked. But I was just as shocked, frightened, and confused as she was.

"I don't know." I replied, still staring at John.

John indicated the cooler and waved them over. I looked in the cooler and found a huge stash of money, and the turkey sandwiches were still in there. There was also a sword made of bronze. Then I realized the cooler was a backpack now, still large enough to hold all those items. I decided to ask questions later and shouldered the backpack and started to head toward John, Katie by my side. When we reached John I asked.

"Where did you get the bow? And how did you shoot that fast?"

"The watch that my dad gave me before he left me when I was an infant… It turned into a bow and quiver when I got here." He replied "I saw the mastiff and shot, then I saw your cooler turn into a backpack and realized that would be useful too."

None of us asked questions all of us seemed to be in a silent agreement, greater hands were at work right now, and we seemed to accept that. A name popped up in my head _Long Island_. I started to search my brain, where was that place?

"I think we should go to New York." Katie said. _That's where long Island is… _I thought.

_That money will come in handy to get there._ I thought.

"I think we should go." John said

We headed for the nearest airport by taking the bus, and we also have to find a way to get one way tickets at very sudden notice without looking like terrorists. But something told me that was the least of our worries. It was strange me only going off of my gut feeling "Something" told me to do this or that.

When we got there the manager of the airlines was concerned about our intentions. But Katie, My God she was good, she simply smiled at the manager and said what we needed, and he handed us the tickets, we gave him the money, and kept moving. We were all on high alert, looking around for more monsters.

_What? Where did that thought come from?_ Where did the word monster come from? It was just an oversized mastiff and sleeping lady in a dirt dress, and he wasn't even sure about the second one since no one else saw it and she was gone in the blink of an eye.

Before we knew it we were allowed access on the plane and were on our way to Long Island, New York.


	3. The camp

Going to New York, without any sense of direction was unsettling. I was leaving my father at home, not that he can't take care of himself, it's just I'm not sure if he'll stay sane.

***BOOM***

I grabbed the armrests again at the huge gust of turbulence, so did my friends. It made me wonder if that was normal, but fortunately for me, heights were not a fear of mine. My worst fear is shear neglect, and I've been in it all my life, my mother left me as soon as I was born, and my father hasn't been anything but an income. As cold as that sounds it was true, he didn't do anything accept go to his work, come home, then give me money to stabilize the house, food/maintenance etc. It really taught me what being a home owner was like, but I was only fourteen, why was I submitted to this life?

***BOOM***

I held on to the armrest again and to my shock, and liking… I accidentally touched Katie's hand. But I quickly retracted my arm and stared at my feet. My heart went on override pumping a bazillion times a second.

_I swear to God, if I'm all red n' stuff, I'm going to hate this day even more._

She didn't seem to mind, otherwise she'd be staring at me, but I can't make more risks like that, if I like her and it's not reciprocated, I'm in for a hard life ahead.

"Please stand by for landing, we request all passengers to remain seated until we are at a complete stop, then you may grab your things and leave, the baggage claim is through the terminal and to your left, thank you!" said the lady on the intercom.

We don't have anything but this backpack, so we don't need to stop at the baggage claim. We can be right on our way, before another THING approaches us. It occurred to me that the airport we used was far away from where my gut told me to go.

"I think we should take a cab." John said. Brilliant idea, New York was full of taxi drivers.

Before we knew it we were on the road, the driver didn't say a word, just asked us where we were headed and drove. Probably for the best, then we'd have to find an excuse. Every once in a while I'd see a huge menacing figure outside the window. It had one eye, and was massive, but I would only see it briefly before I lost it.

Before we knew it he stopped, we paid him up front and he decided that we'd gone far enough. We were now out of money, we already ate our food, and now we were on foot. We started walking and after about five minutes, I heard a distant sound.

As we got closer, it started to become more distinct, it was large drums being hit at a consistent rate. I realized a considerable distance to my left; a person was walking in the same direction as us.

"Hey guys." I whispered pointing at the person. All three of us stopped and watched him keep going; we decided we'd stay a fair distance behind him.

Suddenly he was snatched by two… were those snakes? They dragged him off while he was kicking and screaming. We all ran up, but we stayed out of the clearing that the other kid walked into. We realized that this was a camp… of monsters. All over the place there were snake people, Cyclopes, were those vampires? The list could go on forever. But the place my gut told me to go was beyond this clearing.

The two snake people dragged the kid onto a ragged wooden stage. Where a teenage girl stood, with red hair, she looked oddly normal except for the glowing green eyes. She looked at the poor kid, who looked to be about ten years old.

She was saying something inaudible at this distance. But the sight told me enough, she was probably recruiting him for this army.

_Wait, what?_ Again another thought that seemed to not be my own had popped into my head. Why would she recruit a ten year old for battle? I looked at the kid and he clearly said no to something she said. Then she said something that even I could here.

"Join me." She said

I had to turn my head and blink a few times, for some reason I felt really compelled to join with this girl over there. As if she had some sort of… mind… powers…

I looked back and saw that the boy looked entranced with her words and he seemed to be saying some sort of pledge, when he was finished. The drums started beating again, and she turned directly to where we were watching this all go down.

She pointed at us hiding in the bushes and I saw eight snake people slithering toward us. My eyes widened and I got up, so did Katie and John. Then the girl on stage said.

"Our special guests have arrived!" She said "special" as if she expected us in particular. "Kill them!"

I never ran so fast in my life, we were going to take the long way around the clearing. But I suspected those snakes were right on our heels. Suddenly another clearing came in sight, but this one was guarded by Greek warriors.

I ran toward them, and one of them spotted us and yelled something, and then a few more appeared at his side. They threw spears over our heads and I heard distinct hisses/screams from them.

"Chiron!" one of the warriors called. "We got three more!"

A half horse half man – a centaur, walked up to their side and his eyes gleamed. He leaned over and I tried to read his lips, it probably went something like this

"These are the first half-bloods we've seen get here in a month."

The warrior clearly said something back but he was wearing a helmet. As we approached it occurred to me how weird this situation was. We were running from snake men, to a centaur, just because we thought it necessary.

"Welcome children to Camp Half-Blood!" The centaur said. "My name is Chiron and I'll be your camp director for as long as you stay."


	4. The life of a Half-Blood

**(A/N)** **I'd like to thank all reviews, ones that are around and future ones, the only reason why I write is because of positive and constructive feedback.**

***ONE WEEK LATER***

A whole week had passed in this hellish camp, we were surrounded by a monster camp, and we were forced to go through intense physical and mental training, thanks Athenian children. The children of Ares hosted most of the physical training, while the children of Athens hosted the mental situations.

As a result, life didn't seem so boring anymore; there was also a "claiming" process where a god finally is ready to own that child or something. Needless to say, John is the son of Apollo, the girl magnet, what girl wouldn't fall in love with a tan, blonde, poet, singing, archer, instrument player?

And Katie is the daughter of Aphrodite, goddess of beauty and love. Through all the training I realized that the reason why I was having trouble listening to that girl a week ago is because she had "charm speak" a phenomenon in Greek legend that persuades men and sometimes women to do their will.

We'd been training to resist such things through the mental training, and to not panic. One of the main weapons we used in the physical training was the spear, a long pole with a sharp blade of iron on top, and a large shield. If I had to guess, they were training us to be Spartans, the Greek wall of spears known as the phalanx. Camp half-blood didn't have walls, so they were training their people to be those walls.

The mental training consisted of fear tracks, they'd run you through a room and see if you made it out calm and collected. And if you fail, you're submitted to doing it again, if you succeed, you get a much more extreme version. The children of Hephaestus constructed all of this using television screens, advanced 3D, and intense sound effects.

By the time you got out you were ready for anything, or willing to die on the spot. And that is the lovely camp half-blood. The military camp for teens in the past, waiting to die just like their predecessors.

Most of the days consisted of a pre-breakfast physical workout, breakfast, mental preparations (They evaluate your state of mind to bring the worst fears you've ever had to put into the simulations.), lunch, weapons training, one hour break, dinner, and finally go back to sleep to do it again. And there is no consistent time at which you do this; they needed people on guard duty at all times. So every other day you guard the camp, and every other day you train. And that's assuming you don't have night duty.

But then again, this could we "holy crap we're under siege" schedules. And one day I asked a senior child of Athena if this was normal or is it just under siege that this happens, and he replied.

"When not under siege, you only do these kinds of mental and physical workouts once a week on Friday."

Holy crap that's an awesome deal, there are so many other things I've seen at this camp other than training and guard duty. I saw a lava wall, canoeing and tons of other stuff.

On the bright side of all this, I am much more fit than I was before, I had to get a larger sized T-shirt, to put it in perspective. And John, now that he was getting three square meals a day, was looking more like a human being than a skeleton. He had to get four sizes larger in a shirt.

Speaking of T-shirts, we were handed some and could turn it in at any time for a larger one or a smaller one, but it was a Pegasus on an orange background with letters inscribed at the top "Camp Half-Blood".

It brought a sense of pride to wear it, despite only being here for a week, and also that I was the only one out of my three friends who wasn't claimed, on top of that no one knew what child I was, I wasn't particularly good looking, so Aphrodite was out, I was not a straight A student, so that rules Athena out, I had no connections to plants, and that removed Demeter. That left Dionysius on still on the right side, but he wasn't a female, he replaced Hestia, but I hated fire, in fact, it seemed to hate me back.

The only person to reach out to me was named Charles Beckondorf, a son of Hephaestus. He could build just about anything if he had the material, and the children of Hephaestus didn't need to train as often because they spent so much time in the forge building weapons, armor, and other stuff for the upcoming siege. Charles was only eleven years old, yet he made his way here alone, beyond the monster camp. His knowledge seemed to be beyond his days, like everyone in this camp.

The problem with Athena's children is that some of them specialized in psychology; one of them just looked at me and saw my whole life story. They could see right through me, and I was not okay with that, especially since they saw my liking of Katie, Then again… I could ask if the feeling was reciprocated, but I'd bet that wouldn't happen.

I walked over to the schedule list, my shift for guard duty started in twenty minutes. The standard thing to do is to go over and check into the Hephaestus forge, gear up, so that's what I did. All I have to do now is go over to the person that I'm replacing. Someone named Matthew of the Athena cabin. Every piece of armor had the symbol of their godly parent on the breastplate, so I had to look for an owl and take the persons place, as for me, being unclaimed, instead of having a symbol I had a giant letter U.

When I found him I realized I was the closest post to the monster camp, meaning that if they decided to attack now, I'd be the only thing stopping them from camp, that is until I raise the alarm then I'd have to try to stay alive for as long as possible. But I had a feeling it was going to be a long night.


	5. Confrontation

**So I found out that most people who read my chapters are not just "Read it once and leave", these are people who keep coming back, in fact 100% of the people following my story are not "following", yet I know people are reading it consistently, it's time to follow if you keep looking back for more, it lets me know I have people who like this story. Any Greek used in this chapter if not correct is not intended to be offensive, I found it online.**

My eyes loved fear, apparently. Every time I'd let my arms rest I thought I saw something scurry in the trees, only to raise my arms again and realize it was nothing. Until immediate threats showed up I will rest, it gave me time to realize how built I had become it so few days, and how close I was to everyone and everything in this camp. No matter how rude anyone may seem, we were all in fear with each other, fighting for one another.

It made me think of Katie, the other day I saw her let down her beautiful dark brown hair, and I didn't realize it at the time, but I couldn't help but stare. She caught me a few seconds later and we had eye contact for about a second before I realized what I was doing and quickly looked away. No words can describe how embarrassed I was, despite all that I can't seem to blush even in the most embarrassing situations such as that.

Not that I didn't like not blushing, but it was still weird. One of the worst parts I have found about liking her like that is I'm not sure if she likes me back, it would be terrible if she didn't and I attempted anything. So as a result I keep my distance until maybe I got more confirmation, but I don't know women at all, despite her being my best friend for a good long while.

I heard something, and this time I was positive it was real, and not in my head. I scanned the woods, but saw nothing; I stood up and held my shield close. I started slowly walking towards the tree line, I reached about thirty feet when I heard the most horrifying screech ever, but it wasn't a monster, it was my ears overloading.

I jumped back and took a defensive position; I raised my head over my shield and saw the worst sight since that dirt lady from the park in Kentucky.

It was several ten foot tall humanoids all wearing their own special armor, the most noticeable one was wearing insanely shiny golden armor, and another one had a horned helmet. They all looked at me with utter hatred, and despite being terrified; a tear escaped my left eye. But there was no time to think about that.

Those menacing figures disappeared but two Cyclopes, ten dracaenas, and two empousa. I was trained for this, I had to call for help and stay alive, but as if reading my mind, the empousa that I saw when I first came here said.

"Call for help and we'll kill you before your friends get here." She said.

"And if I don't you'll still kill me." I said. I started to take a breath to yell, but she stopped me with her charm speak.

"Join me."

I stumbled backwards, leaning on my spear for support. I knew these mind games, you had to concentrate on who they really are, and basically do nothing else, depending on how powerful they use it on you, and I intended on taking no chances.

I stood straight up again. And stared at her, but she simply smiled back, opening her mouth to say something again. I braced myself and this time it wasn't nearly as hard to keep my balance.

"Join me." She said. I blinked to clear my head.

Fortunately we had special items to resist the temptations of charm speak, also known as ear plugs. I ripped off my helmet reached into my pockets and was about to put them in when she said.

"Stop!" I could barely keep my head straight, but I put them in before she could say anything else.

"Χρειάζομαι βοήθεια!" I yelled. "βόρειος δεξιός, ά, όν!" (I need help! north side!)

She glared and me and motioned her minions forward. And that's when I remembered I wasn't wearing a helmet anymore. Any blow to the head could potentially be fatal, or mark my fate to joining them. What happens if you get knocked on the head too hard you'll be more susceptible to charm speak, since you can't really concentrate while dazed. One fine blow to the head and all they have to do is rip out my earplugs or execute me.

The first dracaena was easy to dispatch, a fine jab to its sternum, but it had friends that weren't happy. I continued to fight, blocking with my shield and stabbing with my spear, but before I knew it I was surrounded, the best way to get out of a situation like this is focus one down, kill it and run. But two of them jabbed at me and I somehow grabbed one of their spears and used it to pole-vault my way out of there, they were now all in front of me again. I used my new Dracaena spear and threw it at its owner, who fell to dust.

I continued fighting, I chopped one's head off and it turned to dust, kicked one into another's spear, and threw my spear at another. I was now down to a long sword and my shield, with no helmet. The remaining dracaena charged at me, and the Cyclopes went for the flanks. Meanwhile the Empousa seemed to be studying me.

Before I knew it I was hit in the side by a Cyclopes club and no dracaena left, my vision flashed red and my ears rang, I stepped back five paces. They both looked at me, one said something inaudible because of my ear plugs. Where could all my allies be? It had to have been five minutes.

I wacked my shield of few times with the flat of my blade and charged the Cyclopes on the left, he swung his club from left to right but I ducked and slid on my knees for a few seconds, turned around and cut off his arm, his yell was so loud it was deafening even with my ear plugs, I turned back to him and finished him off by stabbing him in the chest, that's when he turned to dust.

I turned to the other one who blinked once, dropped his club and ran. I straightened, but then I had the most horrifying revelation since I found out I had a crush on Katie, where are the empousa? I turned around and got kicked so hard on the chest that I heard my chest plate bend.

I was sent sprawling, I flipped and used my hand so slow myself down, and I realize that both my hands were free, I was disarmed. My weapons lay ten feet in front of me, guarded by the empousa. I remember what the physical combat trainer told me about unarmed combat, strike first, strike hard, and keep striking.

I raised my fist and waited for one of them to approach me. The one that was presumably younger walked forth, I attempted to strike at her, but she blocked, so I tried with my other arm, now we were at a standstill and then she kicked me again. I stumbled back, but was still on my feet.

We had a few more exchanges that ended in the same result, she was simply too fast for me to keep up, I needed outside assistance, like a weapon, but they were too far away, and I had to assume help was stopped by other groups. I had a silent prayer to all the gods, but it wasn't for me.

_If I should die, keep her safe, make her happy, and let a real man give her the happiness she deserves._

A new flow of energy coursed through me. All the energy made me exhale, which when I did indeed exhale, steam came out of my mouth. My hands were surrounded by frost, and I had a new understanding of what was around me, snow was everywhere, and it seemed to give me a radar sense, I seemed to be able to "see" behind me because of it. I willed the snow to bring me my sword, and when I grabbed it, it was encased in frost.

I smiled at the empousa that was in front of me, and willed the snow to encase her legs, she couldn't move now. I cut clean through her from her left shoulder down to her left hip, and she disintegrated.

The other one was staring at me, and I realized my earplugs were missing; the other empousa must've taken them out when I slashed her out of existence.

"Bravo, half-blood, you have proven yourself well enough, now join my or I will kill you." She said.

I was feeling pretty confident. So I pointed my sword at her, which seemed to send the message.

"Join me!" She yelled at me with such a force of charm speak that it took all my will to resist. If she said something I may not be able to resist it again. So I thought about all the most positive moments I had spent with Katie, the way we'd talk to each other in the school lunch room, or that picnic we had before we got here, or how we'd help each other get out of trouble in school.

"JOIN ME!" She repeated, but this time I wasn't affected in the slightest, I smiled and started walking towards her. Her face changed, as if she was having a conversation with someone, then she exploded in fire and was gone.

I looked back at camp and saw Cyclopes catapults surrounding it on the ends, they launched the siege, while I've been here doing nothing. I put on my helmet, grabbed my shield, and ran back for camp.


	6. The siege

**Special thanks to everyone who actually support this fan fiction openly, reviews are the best way to show your liking to a book. If you have any questions or comments, even ideas on how the story should proceed, then leave a review, you WILL be credited. FOR THE SAKE OF TIME AND REFERENCES TO ANYTHING I will not be doing the research for when games/movies/historical events happened. And I also will not try to figure out what year Annabeth, Luke, and Thalia arrived at camp.**

Watching the siege happen while I was too far away to help reminds me of every nightmare I've ever had about losing Katie, being seconds away from saving her and waking up. This was no different, I was charging for the first siege engine and I counted every single projectile it fired into camp.

Before I knew it I was ten feet away, I froze my shield and threw it at the Cyclopes that was loading the catapult. I heard it scream and roar in defiance when it saw me. I leapt onto and off of the catapult so I could jump on its back. I proceeded to stab it in the eye until it turned to dust.

I looked around and realized that the Dracaenas that were defending the Cyclopes were fighting off fellow half-bloods just down the hill, and I had a siege engine right next to me. I used a bunch of snow to lift a rock on the catapult, it made me weary but I aimed and fired at the Dracaenas from behind. They all exploded in a burst of Greek fire, the half-bloods looked to me and I nodded. The seemed shocked an unclaimed could do this all this, but I didn't even know who my parent was at the moment, I hadn't recalled any snow or ice goddesses in Greek mythology.

While thinking about all that I used some of the Greek fire to destroy the catapult, and started running for the next catapult. My brain seemed to be telling me I was forgetting something, but I couldn't place it. I didn't wait until I got to the catapult this time, I conjured a massive blast of ice and the entire sight erupted in a blizzard. The Cyclopes and Dracaenas were shocked from this sudden threat, but didn't have much time to think about since they became nothing more than dust.

_I forgot my shield._ I finally realized, it didn't matter right now, once the last catapult is taken down, I need to join the main fight at the west end of camp. I began to run for the third and final catapult, and I snuck a glance back at camp, and saw that a portion of it was in flames.

I also saw a phalanx at the west end formed by us half-bloods, fighting off dozens of Cyclopes and hundreds of Dracaenas. It also occurred to me that this army we were fighting can't be their whole force. There were too few here for it to make sense, they had around one thousand when I first saw their camp, and have likely kept getting more since.

I made it to the third catapult which was surrounded by six half-bloods, fighting off two Cyclopes and three Dracaenas. I jumped right into the actions by stabbing a Cyclopes in the leg, and then slashed his other leg and he fell to his knees, where I promptly beheaded him. The person that was fighting the Cyclopes before I came in to help had an owl on his chest plate, Athena's child, I recognized him to be Matthew, a mental exerciser guy who runs the simulations in our mental practice.

He looked at me like I'd grown an extra eye, after his brief moment of shock he grinned at me and we both charged at the next Cyclopes. Before I knew it we had all overrun the catapult, and we proceeded to destroy it.

I looked back at camp, the fight at the west end was still happening, and we were currently at the south end. If we came from behind, we'd help a lot more than from the front. I started jogging over, I was about two hundred feet out, and I was exhausted. But I had a duty to all of this camp to participate in this fight.

By the time I got there, the fight was already almost over, most of the monsters were dead or running away but I did have enough time to blast a Cyclopes out of existence with a beam of ice that froze him, and then exploded into dust.

When the fight was over, I could barely take in details, I just wanted to lie down and sleep, there and then. But when it was all over many of the half-bloods were staring at me, and I didn't know why, until I looked around myself again. I was bleeding, my arms and legs were covered in gouges from various spear thrusts or sword slashes, and that's not all.

That ice beam I shot didn't just kill one Cyclopes; it appeared to have destroyed about fifteen Dracaenas as well. But I was too exhausted to admire my own work; I realized that there was light coming from nowhere, or above me, rather. A white dagger inside a circle was above my head, everyone stared at me like I was infected with the plague. I heard the words "Minor goddess" several times.

Before I could make anything of that, however, I fell to my knees and was unconscious before I hit the ground.


	7. Recovery

**To answer a review I got, I realize that character development has been lacking, but I wanted to integrate action some-what early on, I also wanted to paint a picture of what the world is like since this is different than the camp half-blood we all know about. But thank you for the constructive criticism, it lets me know what you guys like and do not like. I also didn't fact check for Charles Beckondorf's age; I thought he was a lot older than he was in "The last Olympian."**

I woke up on a bed, presumably in the infirmary. **(The strawberry fields don't exist because of the lack of protection they need the mental/physical training and the infirmary to take its place.).** I blinked a few times, I had a headache and my left arm was in a ton of pain. Strangely enough, I was too exhausted to groan. I started to study my surrounding, a painting on the wall of Heracles fighting a hydra, a shelf on my left, and an occupied chair to my right.

"Good uh…" John said looking at his watch. "…Afternoon."

I started to say something and immediately regretted it, my throat as dry as a bone, and the air that started through my throat really irritated it.

"Whoops, sorry about that." John said. He went around the bed and grabbed a glass of… what looked like apple juice, and he helped me drink it.

When I finally got some of it in my mouth, I was surprised that it didn't taste like apple juice… It tasted like nothing. However a feeling went through me, all of my best moments of me being in the school cafeteria with Katie and John, the way she'd smile at me, laugh at my jokes, and flip her beautiful hair.

Despite my arm hurting… a lot, I felt much better, mostly because of my thoughts of Katie.

"What is that stuff?" I asked.

"It's the Nectar of Ambrosia, the drink of the gods." John replied. "They only give it to the wounded, and it is in limited supply."

The drink of the gods was indeed godly, but then I had a concerning thought cross my mind.

"How is the camp?" I asked.

"Its fine, a few buildings that the Hephaestus children will need to repair, and a few of Apollo's like me to help the wounded." He replied. "When you're ready, Chiron would like to debrief you at HQ**(The big houses old name before the protective borders.)**."

"Right… how long do I have?"

"For as long as you need, but a few campers and Chiron are interested in what happened." He replied. "I'll let you get to it."

He got up and walked to the door, then paused.

"And by the way, Tyler…" He said. "Nice job out there."

"Thanks." I grinned. If anything could've made me feel any better, it was that a friend of mine who I felt inferior to congratulated me for combat. He continued out the door and closed it behind him.

I completely forgot to ask him how long I had been out, but judging by my stomach not being deathly empty, I would imagine only a few hours. It wasn't like I was whacked on the head, I was just exhausted.

I got up and realized I was only wearing a pair of jeans, I looked around for a mirror and found one, then walked up to it. I looked at both my arms, they were covered in small gashes and a few larger ones, from the rolls I did and the blows I received.

I saw the standard orange camp half-blood T-shirt at the foot of my bed and put it on. I looked to the door and saw my shoes beside it, slipped them on, took a deep breath and opened the door.

I had never been in the infirmary before, never needed to be, not to visit friends, help the wounded or was wounded. To my left was a hallway with a dozen doors on either side, on my right was the same story but with less doors and an opening to a new room.

I to my right and saw a few of Apollo's children going back and forth between rooms. A few of them looked at me for a second but then went back to what they were doing, clearly over worked.

"Tyler!" I heard from behind, it was John. "I forgot to give this to you; we want you to take it slow for a few days."

I nodded and walked outside. I pulled out the card the John handed me.

_Apollo's infirmary: Camp Half-Blood._

_Tyler Hochberg has been wounded in action and was noticeably weak after the event, we need him to get his rest, and this form will last until we can see noticeable recovery._

_-John Elixir of Apollo's infirmary_

Well that's good, now I don't have to do anything for a few days, I feel like I've earned it. It was nice and bright outside, mid-days lunch was probably taking place in the pavilion right now. But lunch took place in two shifts that way no more than half the camp is eating at once.

I started to walk to our headquarters; a huge blue house is more of what it was like. As I walked over, people who were passing by would look at me, mutter to themselves or someone near them, and look back at me again.

_It must've been that minor goddess thing they were talking about before I was out._

I looked at my feet as I walked, still hearing the chattering murmurs of the people around me. It made me wonder why I felt related to these people; they were judging me because of my parentage, still of which I had no idea, but it was probably a snow minor goddess.

Before I knew it I was at the front porch of the big house, I opened the door and walked inside. Matthew of the Athena cabin was inside; he nodded to me and gestured to a room on the left. I walked up to the door and knocked.

"Come in." Chiron said.

I walked in and he was muttering to satyr. The satyr nodded a few times to his words and started to exit the room.

"And Grover, don't forget about what I said again." Chiron said in a serious tone.

"Grover" nodded a few more times and left the room. Chiron gestured to a chair in front of me, of which I sat in. I tried to remember if I saw Chiron in the battle last night, but him being the line commander, he was probably behind everyone shouting orders.

"Mr. Hochberg, the recent events that have happened has never before been seen in Camp Half-Bloods history." He said staring at me.

"Can you elaborate on that for me?" I replied.

"There are many things that have never happened before that happened last night." Chiron said. "The first and foremost I'll say later, but you were claimed by Khione, the snow goddess."

"A minor half-blood has never made it to camp?"

"No, we believe it is because they are not powerful enough to be noticed…" He said. He looked like he was trying to find a way to say his next set of news to me.

"The next thing is not confirmed, but the hints are everywhere." Chiron said. "We believe that entire siege was activated so that their leader, 'Kelli' an empousa, could confront you."

I was waiting for him to say _Psyche, fooled you! This was a humbleness test._ But instead he continued.

"Tyler, things like this don't happen on accident, powerful monsters don't risk it all to attack one person." Chiron said. "This could mark the beginning of the end, so to speak."

"It means that you have a part to play in the end." He continued. "And that she tried to stop you from completing your fate."

"Why me, though? I'm nothing special, Tartarus, I'm an outcast!" I said. "I saw the way people looked at me, and the way they've ignored me the whole time I've been here."

"It's because someone like you has never been here before." Chiron replied. "They don't know how to react."

"And what if I don't want this 'fate'?"

"You can't escape your fate, no more than I can escape mine."

I stood up and headed for the door, why would I want to help the people who wouldn't help me. But as if reading my mind, Chiron said.

"It's not about everyone out there; it's about the people you hold dear."

I opened the door and exited.


	8. The quest

**Special thanks to ****_PinkFan-Gurl _****for the character profile submitted, I have many-a-plans for this story, considering it's going to be over a near twenty year time span, also thanks to all of my loyal readers giving me the support to be willing to write on my birthday (November 13).**

After Tyler's encounter with Chiron, it made him think a lot more in the future. I contemplated life as it is now and the potential it has if it gets better. It also occurred to Tyler that Aphrodite's children were not put through training as much as all the other half-bloods, but he couldn't find it in him to approach Katie.

Having been claimed by my mother, Khione, I found that whenever snow or ice, or anything cold for that matter, he'd be empowered …Including enhanced strength, a knowing of all that's around him, improved reflexes, and much more.

Other things to note is that the Athena cabin tested him using x-rays and emotion to find out what was happening inside of me. They found out that whenever I was sad, angry, irritated, or ready for combat; I would have a solid block of ice form around my heart, pumping cold blood. It was almost like a new adrenaline, and it caused me to breathe steam and my body to emanate a cold aura.

"Hey." said a familiar voice.

I looked up from my feet and saw Matthew, the second oldest member of camp, next to the Hermes cabin leader "Troy".

"Hey." I replied.

"You know, if I had to guess, your mind is on that girl Katie."

It was almost pointless denying it; Matthew specialized in psychology, that's why he ran the mental tests.

"You know, a bit of advice for you…" He continued. "Before the Hestia cabin was removed and replaced with Dionysius's… I knew this girl from that cabin."

I looked at him and raised an eyebrow, and he continued.

"She was gorgeous, and I liked her, and from the knowledge I have now than back when…" He said. "…I realize now that she liked me back."

"Now I'm no philosopher by any means…" He continued. "But you can't be so cautious that life passes you by before you use your chance."

"What happened to her?" I asked.

"One year before her cabin was removed; she died, right in front of my eyes." He said, staring at the ground. "I ran in the clearing as soon as that _monster_ Kelli killed her. And I could only watch."

"I'm sorry." I said.

"And maybe if I had told her the way I felt, she wouldn't have risked herself like the way she did that day, maybe she would've had me come with so I could protect her." He said. "But no, I waited too long and… now she's gone."

He looked up at the sky as if remembering her, looking up to the heavens hoping she would descend to him.

"What I'm saying is, is that you shouldn't let her go, even if she says no, your friendship is more important than the risk of keeping your distance."

"But you know if she likes me or not." I said.

"Yes, but the true magic of love is the unknowing, I'm not going to tell you, you'll just have to find out yourself."

I thought about what he said, but when I looked back to him, he was gone. I was alone on the edge of the forest line, how long did I think about that?

Nonetheless, I kept thinking.

_If I simply hang around her, talking about the things she likes, maybe I could grow on her._

I stood up from the rock I was sitting on, and made my way for the cabins. I knew she was interested in art, but unfortunately I knew nothing about it. And art was her main way to pass the time back before all _this_ happened to us.

Maybe if I asked her about it and had an understanding of it… maybe it'd be better if I stayed away… but I also don't want life passing me by.

"Yo! Tyler!" John said shaking my shoulder. I hadn't realized he was right there this whole time as I'd been walking? "Now you can hear me, stone ears, Chiron has requested to see us."

"…For what?" I asked.

"He didn't tell me, he just told me to get Katie, you, and I all in his office."

Both of us started walking over to headquarters in anticipation, what did Chiron want? …And why us? We had only been at camp for a week; it can't be anything to serious, can it?

We were standing in the big house, Katie was already waiting outside Chiron's office, we were all now outside his door, waiting to walk in. John knocked and I heard Chiron say.

"Come in."

We all walked in and three chairs were in front of his desk that he stood behind, being that he was half horse, which also means that there was a lowering in the floor so that he didn't tower over everyone.

He looked at us and motioned us to sit in the three chairs, I sat in the left chair, John in the middle, and Katie in the right.

"As you three obviously know, we are under siege, and when you first came to camp, you mentioned that they seemed to be forcibly abducting young half-bloods and forcing them to join their army." He said. "Well, not only is that taking away our own soldiers, it's adding them their own."

"We need somebody to try to redirect the half-bloods around their camp, and into ours." He continued. "We also need some people to try and sap their camp, destroy convoys of weapons, ammunition, and reinforcements before they reach the main bulk."

I was the first to speak.

"So you want us to fill that role."

"Yes, that siege started three months, to the day, before you guys arrived, and three is a sacred number, you guys also came here in three."

"So you're following a hunch." John said.

"Many things have happened that are unnatural since you guys came here, John." Chiron only said first names when the situation was very serious.

"I agree, there are three fates, three of us, and the siege started three months ago, I think we should go." Katie said. I looked over to her and saw that she didn't look more enthusiastic than John or I, but she was willing.

It made me realize that I was going to be with the two people that cared about me the most on a camping trip, if you will.

"Well, I guess we should get ready." I said.


	9. New face

**Big thanks for all the reviews/follows/favorites from all of you guys, I pretty much just sacrificed my youtube account so I could spend more time writing, mostly because I get more feedback on here as opposed to youtube. If you want to listen to the music I listen to when I write all of this… Here's a list for you.**

** watch?v=eOAultkqH3U&index=1&list=WL**

** watch?v=pFS4zYWxzNA&index=2&list=WL**

** watch?v=i5Kwf_nNmGI&index=3&list=WL**

** watch?v=f71DWpgO9uw&list=WL&index=4**

I was getting antsy; they wanted three half-bloods who'd only been in camp for a week, to go sap a monster camp. It's not that I didn't have confidence in our skills, but I had more confidence in others.

The first order of operations was getting Greek light armor, armor that has less padding in certain spots so it's impossible to make noise while moving in it, except for footsteps. But nonetheless it was lighter and if struck there is a less chance you will be saved from pain and injury.

They also let us select "Special" items from the Hephaestus armory. We all arrived to see the racks of elite armor, and weapons. I looked left and right at all the stuff they had, multi-purpose armors, goggles, swords, bows, pretty much everything.

I saw Charles Beckondorf to the left, and the Hephaestus cabin counselor to the right. The counselor raised his head in acknowledgement, and Charles grinned with pride.

"These items are some of the greatest that have been forged over the years, some are very new." The counselor said gesturing to Charles.

It made me wonder what items Charles at created, being as young as he was. I walked into the entire room of this stuff, I saw a pair of goggles that intrigued me, and put them on. I looked through them and saw zooming capabilities, thermal vision, x-ray vision and tons of other stuff I had no idea what it was.

"I made those…" Charles said.

I looked over to him and raised my eyebrows in amazement.

"These are mighty fine, but what does all this stuff do?"

He spent the next half-hour explaining it to me, in that time John had selected a bow with such a strong power draw he needed to get a pair of special gauntlets. Katie got a knife, and a set of fifteen throwing knives. I finished up with the pair of goggles, and a compressible shield. I already had the sword that was encased in ice, and we all had light armor, so we seemed to be ready to head out.

We were headed directly for the monster camp that has trapped this camp for months, just the three of us. I had a feeling it was going to be even harder than defending the camp, mostly because we don't have an army at our backs this time.

When we reached the edge of the monster clearing I heard the booming voice of Kelli, but that's impossible, she had to be dead. She exploded in fire when I stabbed at her.

"You WILL JOIN ME!" Kelli shouted, followed by the approved hisses, growls, and bellows of her Fiends.

I saw a girl on that stand, being forced on her knees by a Dracaena behind her. She slowly looked up at Kelli, and I saw her expression even from here, pure hatred for being forced to do something that wasn't in her control.

"If I join you, I'll drive a sword so far up your rear that you're going to waddle like a duck for the rest of your miserable life!" The girl said.

"At least I can tell Kronos I tried." Kelli said. "Witness the path of defian-"

Before Kelli could finish what she was saying, John shot an arrow so quickly you wouldn't have known he did, except for the fact that there was a massive clang and Kelli was looking in our direction equally as fast. It appeared John shot the sword out of her hands before she could have the chance to kill the girl.

John had just given away our position in the middle of this huge monster camp to save this girl; it had better be worth it. It occurred to me that we can't fight this whole camp alone, we'd have to save the girl and get out.

I took three steps out into the clearing, along with Katie. She uttered something that affected everyone in the clearing.

"Monsters will die!" She said

Her words washed over me, making me want to kill each and every one of these things in this clearing. I looked around and saw at least thirty monsters stab themselves and turn to dust. John all the while firing at priority targets, mostly the Cyclopes eyes, being that they are the largest threat.

I started summoning the moisture all around me, from the trees, the stream nearby, the soil below us and started turning it to snow. I raised my arms and closed my eyes in concentration, hearing the brewing of a blizzard all around me, I willed to be fired right in the center of the monsters gathering but also concentrated so that it wouldn't take out the half-blood on the stage.

I heard a distinct explosion followed by howling winds, and the many monsters that were being killed by my storm. I saw John put away his bow and draw a short sword, he charged directly for the stage. Kelli noticed this and picked up her sword from the ground, and then she screeched in defiance and charged back.

I was going to help John if I wasn't being blocked by about thirty Dracaena and to my disbelief, _humans,_ more specifically, half-bloods that were forced to defect. Katie and I fought them trying to get to John, but he was on his own…


	10. Naomi

**Sorry for the wait, but Thanks Giving, my school mid-terms, and all that other stuff is going on, plus I had to evaluate the dimension of a new mind, and the attitude of a new character, thank you all for your patience. I also take new characters very seriously in their development.**

John hadn't realized it until it happened; he gave away his groups' position, and ran out all by himself into a field filled with a ton of nasty monsters. And now he was all by himself in the midst of suicidal Dracaena and a giant blizzard slightly to his left.

Kelli was charging at him, and he was charging back. John jumped at her and swung his sword wildly at her, but she parried everything. Being a son of Apollo he was given more training as an archer, not a swordsman.

I was having a hard time; he had to take a few steps back because of Kelli's counter attacks. She was much faster than him at the blade, and he was barely managing as is, much like Tyler's story, I needed outside help.

No sooner did I think that thought, Kelli had dislocated my sword arm and kicked me five feet back sprawling. I got back on my feet and got to a ready position, it hadn't occurred to me that Kelli was in full empousa form. She had a metal leg, and razor sharp claws and teeth, not to mention her sword as well.

She bared her teeth then started toward me.

"I will rip the flesh from your bo-." She started to say but was interrupted.

The girl that I had seen on the stage jumped on her back and was beating Kelli's head with her fists that is until she was thrown off directly at me. I had to quickly get out of the way before the girl hit me. She landed on the ground beside me on her back, gasping for air.

I saw my sword a few feet to my right, I ran over to it and picked it up, I snuck a glance to my right and saw Tyler and Katie, Tyler summoning blasts of snow, and Katie convincing her enemies to commit suicide.

I went back over to the girl sheathed my sword, and picked her up and ran, I had no idea where Kelli was, or if she was going to chase us, but we needed to get out of here.

Tyler looked over and saw us, and he looked over to Katie and presumably said something, she looked over as well and got ready to cut a path for me. Tyler and Katie fought towards us until we had a way to get out, a looked behind me and realized that the girl had beaten Kelli pretty well, so well that Kelli was leaning on her sword for support, which made me realize it was coated in blood.

I hadn't been struck which meant the girl was, we had to get out of here. When we reached the tree line, Katie turned around and yelled at the top of her lungs in charm speak.

"STOP!"

I looked back and most of the monsters in the field just stopped in their tracks, looking around with no purpose. We continued to run as far away from those forsaken grounds as possible, zigzagging to keep them off of us.

When I felt we'd ran far enough, I looked back to make sure we didn't have any pursuers. I positioned the girl against a tree, she was currently unconscious. Tyler appeared next to me, I felt his cold breath.

"I hope she's thankful when she wakes up." He said.

"Yeah, me too." I said. "You two secure the area; I'll see what I can do."

They nodded and I kneeled next to the girl and put my hand on her head, children of Apollo had a natural healing ability, less than Apollo himself, of course. I found that the wound was just above her right hip, and to my horror, I realized her appendix was ready to burst. I carefully parted the wound and used my short sword to cut it out.

I threw it as far away as possible and heard a dull splat sound. I looked back to her; she hadn't stirred yet, and for good reason. I ripped my backpack off and scrambled for the bandage roll. I cut a good size out of it and rapped it around her waist and tied it as hard as I could.

I sat in front of her and leaned back, exhausted. My arm still hurt from being previously dislocated, and it didn't help that I had to carry someone to safety. I got back to me knees and touched the girls head again; she was stable and stirring now.

I quickly backed away and sat down again, her eyes fluttered open, when her memories presumably came flooding back she tried to sit up and I said.

"No worries, we are safe for now."

She focused on me.

"Feel free to start explaining at any time now."

"Well then, you live in Greek mythology." I replied. "Not that that's surprising at your point, considering you were indeed attacked by the equivalent of a vampire."

"Not that, stupid. Who are you and your friends?"

"Glad to know you're grateful." She glared at me. "I'm John, Sub-Zero over there is Tyler, and the suicidal thoughts manager is Katie."

"I'm Naomi."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Naomi."

She started to try to sit herself up but then stopped and grasped her side.

"Yeah, you'd probably not want to do that, you were cut there, and I had to remove your appendix."

"Thanks for that."

"No problem, it was kind of a sketchy process but-"

"No, for not arriving earlier." She interrupted.

"Sorry then, remind me to move at light speed next time."

"You bet."

"Nothing around here that's threatening." Katie reported.

"Same here, nothing around here for a little while." Tyler said.


	11. Arguments

**I don't have much to say this time, but Merry Christmas and happy new year!**

"And what's your name?" Tyler asked.

"Naomi Bloom." Naomi responded.

"It's nice to meet you, Naomi." Katie said.

Katie, Tyler and I had been explaining the situation of the world around her, and she took it pretty well.

"You need to report back to camp." I said.

"No." She said bluntly.

I looked at her and she looked back.

"So why not?"

"Because this is very clearly a fight, and one that I refuse to step away from."

"You wouldn't by any chance have taken any martial arts classes then?"

"Well that remains to be seen, choir boy."

"Let's take a step back." Katie suggested.

"I agree." Tyler said.

_Choir boy? I saved her life!_ I thought.

"Either way, I'm not leaving here." Naomi said.

"Well, we aren't liable." I said.

"I don't need anyone's protection." Naomi said.

_You were just captured be a thousand monsters and you needed to be saved by us, but sure, you don't need protection. _I thought.

"I'm going to check and see how our monster friends are doing." Tyler said.

**Tyler POV**

It hadn't occurred to Tyler how far they ran to get to that clearing they were in, because walking back to the monster camp will take about thirty minutes. He was still very aware of his surroundings, looking for traps, tracks, or for anything in the trees.

By the time he'd gotten to the monster camp, almost all of the damage they'd done had been repaired. The few hundred monsters they'd killed that took so much effort were replaced by more nasty monsters.

I used my goggles zoom option to look upon the only tent in the camp, all the other "living" areas were various logs, the stage, and the wide open. I saw a distinct shadow of Kelli inside the tent, And a full set of Greek armor next to her.

The kids that were forced to join the monsters did not have the kind of equipment provided for them, meaning that this in particular person next to her had been inside the camp, possibly even living there.

I got so angry at the possibility of a traitor I froze my sword. It felt different now, more powerful. I saw distortions across the blade itself, the more I concentrated on it the more I realized it was monster faces looming under the blade; I was so shocked I dropped my sword.

I picked it back up and felt that same power in it again, Snow and ice gave me power, but this felt different. Then I realized that it may have been the monsters power I have been feeling, maybe when I kill them I absorb what power they have left before they plunge into Tartarus.

I peeked back out from behind the tree and saw monsters approaching.

"I sssssenssse the pressssence of our kin" Said a Dracaena.

I realized that my sword was going to let them know where I am when I'm in close proximity. So I made the quick decision of blasting them with some of the energy that the sword had and threw the blade to my right as far as I could.

If it was going to attract monsters then I had no choice, I had to get back to my friends now, before other monsters investigate.

On my way back I contemplated the word "friend" was Naomi really a friend? We saved her out there, risked it all for one person, just to get mouthed off to.

I got back to our clearing and saw a fairly heated fight between John and Naomi, Katie of course was trying to stop them.

"I expect you to go back to camp for your own safety!" John said.

"I said before I don't need a choir boy a sweet talker and a nobody protecting me!" Naomi said.

I guess I'm the nobody. I thought to myself.

I walked up behind her and started breathing down her neck with my frozen hearted breath.

She quickly turned around grabbed my arm and attempted to dislocate it by using her shoulder. But I was just as quick with more training; I used that to her disadvantage and put her in a head-lock. She rammed her heel right on the foot and pushed her way out. She attempted to punch me in the face but I grabbed her arm and punched her right in her surgery wound.

She crumbled to her knees.

"I'm taking you back to camp." I said. I guess that heated argument made her ready to throw punches.

"I will." John said.

"Fine by me, it's probably going to be hard for me to walk anyway." I said.

John grabbed Naomi by the shoulders and hoisted her to her feet and started walking her in the direction of camp, she was struggling and calling John things that shouldn't be repeated. Either training in camp will calm her down, or make her ten times worse.

As they were walking away my adrenaline receded and my foot started to ache, I limped over to a tree and leaned against it, Katie was sitting by a nearby tree. Then I realized that I was going to be alone with her for the next twelve hours or so.


End file.
